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UncategorizedInfrastructure management has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years. What began as straightforward storage monitoring has evolved into something far more comprehensive, as organizations grapple with increasingly complex hybrid environments spanning on-premises, cloud, and edge technologies.
To understand these changes and what they mean for infrastructure teams, our President & COO Phil Godwin sat down with Director of Technical Operations Jeff Symons to discuss the shifting landscape of infrastructure management and observability.
Beyond Traditional Monitoring
“We’ve navigated out of the storage-centric view and evolved to support Kubernetes, cloud, virtualization, VMware, Nutanix, and other critical technologies,” explains Jeff Symons, discussing Visual One’s evolution. “We’re providing consolidated reporting across these environments in ways nobody else is doing.”
This shift reflects a broader industry trend: the rise of truly hybrid infrastructure. As organizations balance workloads between cloud and on-premises environments, they need tools that can provide unified visibility across their entire infrastructure stack.
From Reactive to Predictive
Perhaps the most significant change in infrastructure management has been the shift from reactive to proactive monitoring. “In the past, the conversation was about reactive monitoring – knowing about something bad as soon as it happens,” notes Symons. “But that’s only one part of the problem.”
Today’s infrastructure teams need more than just alerts about current issues. They need predictive analytics that can anticipate potential problems before they occur, and prescriptive recommendations that show how to prevent those issues entirely.
The Convergence of Observability, FinOps, and Infrastructure Monitoring
One of the most interesting developments in infrastructure management is the convergence of traditionally separate domains: observability, FinOps, and infrastructure monitoring. While these have historically been treated as distinct disciplines, modern infrastructure complexity demands a more unified approach.
“When somebody says FinOps, they often mean financial reporting of the cloud,” Symons points out. “But they’re not looking at the full picture of IT spend.” This narrow view can create blind spots, especially as organizations adopt hybrid architectures that span both cloud and on-premises environments.
Looking Ahead: AI and Automation
As organizations look to the future, artificial intelligence and automation are becoming increasingly central to infrastructure management strategies. “The question isn’t if you’re going to implement AI, it’s where you’re going to be able to implement it,” says Symons. “And once it’s implemented, what is the governance going to look like?”
This focus on AI extends beyond just using it as a technology – it’s about understanding how AI workloads will impact infrastructure resources and costs. Organizations need tools that can help them forecast and manage these new demands while maintaining operational efficiency.
Infrastructure as a Service: The New Frontier
Even traditional on-premises infrastructure is evolving, with manufacturers moving toward infrastructure-as-a-service models that make on-premises resources more cloud-like. However, success with these new consumption-based models requires deep understanding of workload patterns and utilization trends.
“The customer really has to know their workload and utilization to make a financially attractive decision long-term,” notes Phil Godwin. “If they miss their workload projections, it could potentially cost a lot more than just buying that asset originally.”
The Path Forward
As we move into 2025 and beyond, several key trends are emerging that will shape the future of infrastructure management:
- Increased focus on governance, especially around AI and data management
- Continued evolution of hybrid architectures, including potential “cloud repatriation”
- Growing adoption of Kubernetes and container technologies
- Rising importance of application-level visibility
- Enhanced emphasis on cost management across all infrastructure types
For infrastructure teams, success in this new landscape requires tools that can provide unified visibility, predictive insights, and comprehensive cost management across increasingly complex hybrid environments. The days of siloed monitoring tools and fragmented visibility are giving way to more integrated, intelligent approaches to infrastructure management.
About Visual One Intelligence®
Visual One Intelligence® is an infrastructure tool with a unique approach—guaranteeing better & faster monitoring, observability, and FinOps insights by leveraging resource-level metrics across your hybrid infrastructure.
By consolidating independent data elements into unified metrics, Visual One’s platform correlates and interprets hybrid infrastructure data to illuminate cost-saving and operations-sustaining details that otherwise stay hidden.
These insights lead to fewer tickets, less downtime, lower costs, and more efficient architectures.
